NY Daily News doctors Boston photo

4/17/13 11:09 AM EDT

The New York Daily News on Tuesday apparently doctored its front page photo of the bombing at the Boston Marathon — and they’re not talking about the controversial decision.

The photo, taken by The Boston Globe’s John Tlumacki, shows two injured women, with one lying down in a pool of blood. In the Daily News version of the photo, both of her legs are covered by black pants. In the original image, however, one of her legs is shown to be very badly injured.

Charles Apple, the Focus page editor of the Orange County Register, first pointed out the apparent alteration on his blog, writing, “Looks to me like somebody did a little doctoring of that photo to remove a bit of gore. If you can’t stomach the gore, don’t run the photo. Period.”

Capital New York also reported that “several News insiders” said the decision to change the photo “came straight from of the top of the masthead.” A Daily News spokesperson told Capital New York that "The Daily News does not comment on its editorial decision-making."

Daily News Editor Colin Myler has not yet responded to POLITICO’s request for comment. And New York Daily News photo assignment editor Reggie Lewis, meanwhile, told POLITICO he would send the request for comment to “people I report to.”

While the paper used an apparently altered image on its front page, on the Daily News' website, the original photo had been shown in this story. The paper replaced the original image with an Associated Press photo by MetroWest Daily News’ Ken McGagh on Wednesday morning. The Daily News also did not respond to requests for comment about why the original image had been used online.

Check out the Daily News Tuesday front page here. And, for comparison, The Newark Star-Ledger’s front page, which also used the picture.